Forum:26: Lumenated Land
The group passed south along the coast of Snezhny in order to avoid the Silver Eagle on the Sagitta's way towards the continent of Nordica, and so that Agent Waters could depart from the group on orders from above to pursue the investigation elsewhere. Once they got close to Librem, however, the orders from the craft were for Artyom to wait in the brig for his discussion with the elven bandmember of Piano and Jack, who seemed willing and able to explain quite a bit concerning the situation in Snezhny. On arriving in the brig, the area was magically quieted and the elven Jack appeared before Artyom to have his discussion, where he explained several things concerning his past and Snezhnian history. First and foremost, he was himself a former Deodin of the Dead Dragons, and had been transformed into a lich like Depyat through a ritual that culminated in the murder of his best friend Bogdan, a man who had also become his second in command as the former Dedva. However, the process had drained Jack and broken his spirit to the extent that he was replaced as Deodin, and he left Snezhny in disgust over his wasted sacrifice. Before leaving, however, he was able to gleam a few details about his replacement and the circumstances of Snezhny. He told the group that Dr. Vavilov the Neuroanatomist was apparently responsible for the training of the new Deodin, and that Vavilov's techniques had crafted Deodin into a supposedly flawless soldier. However, he said that the most dangerous of the Dead Dragons was likely still Detri, an older elf only slightly younger than the ageless Jack, and an experienced illusionist and diviner capable of turning battles with his knowledge. He was also a man willing to undertake immense personal sacrifice to achieve his aims, and was not transformed into a lich simply because he had nothing of value to offer up to the ritual that he had not already given up. Jack also stated that the most likely mastermind behind a military coup amongst the surface elves was likely a general by the name of Zinoviy Kalnov, the commander-in-chief of the Snezhnian military and the direct commander of the Dead Dragons. He is reputedly a fanatical expansionist who would refuse overtures of peace from the drow without at least being able to claim victory over them, and the advanced state of the war suggests that his campaign is not successful. Jack informed Artyom that if he were to continue his investigation of Snezhny, that he would have to go to Gray Peak at the elves' own behest, and both magical trickery and brute force would fail to get him inside the top-secret site. In exchange for all this information, Jack asked for a favour in return. Within Gray Peak is his phylactery, a broken old maple wood metronome. Jack asked that if Artyom's incursion into Gray Peak is successful, that he consider retrieving the metronome and returning it to him, so that Jack might be the final arbiter of his lifetime. Jack categorically refused to return to Snezhny as he was sick of the death and destruction that had he himself had wrought there and any affection he had for the country died a long time ago. With that, he departed and Artyom informed the group of what he was told. Ten or so days later, the group arrived in Nordica and sought out the location indicated to them by Detri earlier. However, they happened upon several metallic oozes on the way there that Ten-Tongues noted were somehow different from others he had seen. On their approach, the oozes emitted some sort of an effect that caused Lin and Yahtuh to become violently ill, to the point that Lin's health began to deteriorate severely and the group had to retreat. Lin, losing hair and vomiting violently, cursed her team's poor sense of forethought, and Ten Tongues set about trying to ascertain the cause of her illness and could not find a source for the affliction that now plagued her. The group, after stopping to consider the situation briefly, continued en route to the location in search of some information about the effect. The group arrived in the dwarven town of Canique, once known for its famous lampworks and mines, but now a ghost town inhabited only by a small elven guard looking after long-forgotten prisoners. The de-facto leader of the group was Katya Fyodorova, a serious but clearly under-stimulated woman who bizarrely shared Artyom's last name. After a little annoyance concerning the group's unwillingness to explain why they were there with a Golden Eagle Medallion, she let them in to have their run of the town, and that they should meet "Pastor Henri" for information about the prisoners and the affliction. En route, Lin fought an elven soldier carrying a quarterstaff which her semi-intelligent weapon recognized as the shaft to which the spearhead was originally attached. She beat her opponent handily and took the staff from him, offering her cold iron naginata in exchange as consolation. The group met with the man called Pastor Henri, a mad dwarf in filthy priestly garb who sent food and water down a set of pipes to unseen rooms in the mines below, and raved about failing his flock of followers in the depths below. In the midst of his histrionics, the group managed to ascertain certain facts about the place. Canique was a former mining town known for its extraction of the rare metal Lumenium, which is capable of generating large amounts of power but also gives off an aura called Lumenation which destroys biological life, despite being neither disease nor poison, and also not magical in nature. Lumenation exposure can also cause other objects to develop the effect after several months, and acute exposure to the effect is cumulative and harder to resist after each instance of exposure for approximately one whole day, until the body rids itself of the effect. The effect, however, can be blocked by lead, and certain types of medicine called "iodine cocktails" can help someone expecting to undergo exposure cope by naturally enhancing their body against Lumenation, but it is only helpful in the short term. Through Ten Tongues' magical machinations, the group also managed to get in contact with some of the prisoners, Librennians and Snezhnians amongst them, and found they were being held in underground rooms shielded against Lumenation. However, some of the shielding had been compromised over the years and several occupants are in the advanced stages of the sickness. The group managed to get a few of the Snezhnians out of the area magically, but would have to go into the mines in order to extract the rest, so they searched the environs for some form of lead shielding while Ten Tongues got some medical supplies from the Sagitta to make iodine cocktails. In the interim of the planning stages, Artyom, Lin, and Katya managed to convince the rest of the elves on site, through miraculously well-constructed arguments and appeals, to abandon the Gulag and defect from Snezhny. The only dissident was the drunken Commandant, who put up a token resistance to the idea at most and insisted that Yahtuh at least tie him up to maintain the facade that he was being taken against his will. With the elves' assistance, the group managed to find three suits for getting into the mines, and started looking into means of access to the lower floors, including a broken down elevator. The captives that remained were apparently on the 18th and 19th basement levels of the mine, and the group was also made aware of not only the high levels of Lumenation in the mines, but the presence of similar aberrant creatures to the ones outside that had been mutated by Lumenation themselves. Cautioned from their encounter with lumenated creatures earlier, the group began crafting more plans to get into the mines and free the remaining prisoners... Rewards: *8,000 XP per person, for combat, the discovery of Canique, Nordica, and the dire effect of Lumenation.